Sifting through military records at TNA

This page is dedicated to helping Australians locate their
British military ancestors and so only covers the
appropriate period corresponding with colonial Australia.

For
British Army records outside this era see: S Fowler & W
Spencer; Army records for family historians, 2nd ed,
1998.
1760 to 1913.
The National Archives at Kew in London hold all the surviving
records for British soldiers from about 1760 to 1913. These
records are held in the War Office files WO 97 which are
often called soldiers discharge papers but are in fact
a record of the soldier’s service from enlistment
to discharge. That is the soldier’s attestation papers
(made at recruitment), his service record, and his discharge
papers. The early records are very brief and lack details.
WO 97 documents are grouped into four periods:

1760 to 1854: indexed in the online catalogue
1855 to 1872: arranged alphabetically by surname by regiment
(128 regiments at this time)
1873 to 1882: arranged alphabetically by surname within
the arm of service (infantry, cavalry, guards, etc)
1883 to 1900 and 1900 to 1913: arranged alphabetically
by surname for the whole army

There are two supplementary series at the end:

1843 to 1899: arranged alphabetically by surname for the
whole army
1900 to 1913: arranged alphabetically by surname for the
whole army

Papers for those discharged without a pension (pensions
were granted for long service and/or medical reasons) before
1883 were destroyed in a fire. From this date all papers
survive.
You can expect to find the following in a set of papers:

• name, age, place of birth and trade or employment before
enlistment
• date and place of enlistment
• next of kin with their address
• marriage details if the soldier marries while in service
• changes to next of kin details
• promotions, demotions, crimes, campaigns, wounds and medals
awarded
• date and place of discharge.
• conduct on discharge (nearly always good in spite of common
offences)
• where soldier was to live after discharge

You will find papers relating to the following soldiers
missing from the collection:

1. soldiers discharged in a colony who elected to take
their pension in the colony.
2. soldiers transferred to the Army Reserve after completing
their service and then recalled in 1914.

If you cannot find the record there may be some alternative
routes to find the regiment: